A generational spooky story with botanical horror is the need of the hour at the beginning of November, and A House with Good Bones by T. Kingfisher delivers just that in under 250 pages.

If you have been here before, you already know what a fan I am of everything T. Kingfisher has written. This book is not an exception.

Read all T. Kingfisher book reviews here.

A House with Good Bones captures the best of Kingfisher in terms of the gothic atmosphere and the humour in characterisations. With that, let’s get into it!

Plot of the Book: What is “A House with Good Bones” about?

This T. Kingfisher book delivers on everything it promises; it is indeed a house with good bones.

The story begins when Samantha returns home to her grandmother’s house where her mother now lives. Her grandmother has been dead for over two decades, but the house looks exactly the same as it did under her grandmother’s care. Her mother had painted over her own more lively colours and had taken down her personal decor to restore the house to its former drudgery.

Gran Mae takes center stage in her absent presence in the story. Sam is constantly thinking of her as she is taken back to the time she, her mother and her brother, Brad, came to live with Gran Mae. She is astonished by the changes in her mother’s behaviour. Her mother is praying, censoring swear words, refusing to recall how horrible Gran Mae was and has even hung up the old Confederate wedding photo in the living room.

T. Kingfisher does not write grandparents as fluffy old people who offer you milk and cookies when you visit. Gran Mae is a vicious woman who is secretive and possibly witchy. She bodyshames a little Sam, brings her conservative values into their lives and feeds her prized rose garden little Sam’s blood.

It is obvious that Sam would find the rose gardens to be ominous. But what she does not expect is the horde of vultures watching the house at all hours of the day.

In the events that take place in the course of less than 2 weeks, Sam, the archeoentomologist, digs up the past of her own family tree. What she discovers is littered with suspected wizards, unholy experiments and some immaculate conceptions that result in daddy issues.

If these interest you in reading this wicked book with an undertone of humour, you would find a cozy but adeventurous story that is just spooky enough to keep you checking the windows and the garden.

Why is “A House with Good Bones” Perfect for Autumn TBR?

Gothic stories are slow in their narrative as they build the atmosphere. This is true for A House with Good Bones. The tone of the story is ominous from the very beginning; the book begins with a vulture perching on the mailbox of the protagonist’s grandma’s house. There are descriptions of roses interspersed between one and the next, adding a sense of gothic to the plot.

T. Kingfisher approaches the characters with a grim sense of reality. There is no sense of rose-tinted glasses when it comes to Gran Mae. Sam’s very real fear of her mother losing her mind and having to contemplate actually putting her mother in a nursing home paint a very realistic picture. This is in line with how Sam approaches the whole situation, with cynicism, a self-deprecating humour and a healthy dose of logic.

In line with T. Kingfisher’s other works like Wolf Worm, Snake Eater and The Twisted Ones, the story revels in its absurdity. This is kept up until the full scope of the horror is unveiled.

The description of abuse across generations is palpable. The narrative sheds all attempt at nostalgic relationships with the great-grandfather’s shenanigans exposed. The author allows for a strong mother to support Samantha through this ordeal of a grandmother who refuses to stay dead. The redemption arc for Gran Mae is not given much pomp, it is treated as a fact of her life while she spent the majority of it choosing to be mean and bitter to others.

Despite the doom and gloom, Gail, the other witch in the subdivision, with her pet vulture and Phil, the handyman, add to the lightheartedness of the novel. Sam coming to terms with the existence of Underground Children and her rose bush puppet grandmother is a harrowing but grimly funny reading experience.

It makes for a perfect Autumn read as it balances the horror with the specific T. Kingfisher brand of humour. If you are looking for something that is not super scary but addresses a toxic family built around botanical horror and fanatical religious beliefs, A House with Good Bones would be a good read.

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Have you read any of T. Kingfisher’s horror books yet? What horror books have caught your attention recently? Pick up a copy of A House with Good Bones by T. Kingfisher here.

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